Silver Touch Bets Big on Enterprise App Development

Amit Singh

The Ahmedabad-based Silver Touch Technologies has built a robust business practice around enterprise application development. With over 1200 employees across 14 locations in India and subsidiaries in the US, UK and France, the company has strengthened its enterprise mobility business with a 40-people strong team for application development across two development centers – Ahmedabad and Delhi.

With a vertical focused approach, the company is charting plans to acquire customers in government, BFSI, PSUs and large enterprises. It is already executing few large and complex mobile app development projects for Gujarat government and India Navy.

Back in 2009-10, Silver Touch had a modest beginning in the mobile application domain with 2-3 dedicated members to handle queries from offshore clients. “We used to develop web applications and portals for many of our international clients. Getting into the mobile app development was a natural extension necessitated by increasing queries. Moreover, we realized that mobile apps will be a rage with platforms like Android and iOS,” explained Minesh Doshi, Director, Silver Touch.

He further elaborated that the company started with developing gaming apps for offshore clients and slowly graduated to offer mobile apps as its own product. “We offered city guides and child tracking apps to our international clients. In fact, our child tracking app, MyNino, became quite popular among the parents and has over 2000 customers in Europe. The app enables parents track their children with GPS tracker, geo-fencing as well as call and SMS reports.”

In 2012, Silver Touch developed a mobile app for Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to enable citizens get information on nearest embassy/consulate, information for Haj pilgrims, visa rules and status as well as information and circulars from MEA. The app was downloaded over 10,000 times in the first week of its launch.

The company also developed a grievance redressal app, Aaple Sarkar, for Maharashtra government in 2016. “It is a one-stop platform for citizens seeking redressal of their grievances against any Maharashtra state department. It also enables to track the progress of the complaint and is available on Android, iOS and Windows platforms, with over 5 lakh downloads,” he added.

Success in the B2C and G2C domains led the company expand its mobile app development business and seek opportunities in enterprise applications. “We built the team to cater to the queries from offshore clients. We also started up-selling mobile apps to our clients for Web-based solutions and thus created a new revenue stream,” he shared.

Silver Touch currently offers various enterprise apps as well as takes on customized mobile app developments for enterprises. Its ‘Silver Shop’ mobile app integrates the existing Magento Web store to create a native mobile app offering the same product catalog and user experience as customers have on Web-based Magento storefront.

“We have over 70 organizations as customers for Silver Shop, where we have customized and integrated the app with the Magento extension to offer them a native mobile app. Such projects may cost between $12,000 to $30,000 depending upon the customization and functionalities required. Further, 18-20 percent of the project value comes as annual contract for maintenance. Almost 50 customers have signed annual contracts with us to manage the Silver Shop. This is a very lucrative business with margins in excess of 50 percent,” disclosed Doshi.

The company also offers HRMS suite with over 43 modules to its government and corporate clients. “For mobility, we have built 6 companion apps with limited functions from the HRMS suite to enable employees file leaves, complaints and get salary slips etc; HR executives to pull attendance and leave data; and business managers to approve/reject leave applications and overtime,” he added.

The company has developed and deployed HRMS companion apps for organizations like Tirth Agro and Gujarat Enterprise. It has also provided customized mobile application with SAP Business ONE for companies like MTS Engineers, Divine Tree, Hi-Bond Bearings, Nishant Constructions and Astron Packaging.